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adamancy

 - 3 dictionary results

ad⋅a⋅mant

  [ad-uh-muhnt, -mant]
Use adamancy in a Sentence
–adjective
1. utterly unyielding in attitude or opinion in spite of all appeals, urgings, etc.
2. too hard to cut, break, or pierce.
–noun
3. any impenetrably or unyieldingly hard substance.
4. a legendary stone of impenetrable hardness, formerly sometimes identified with the diamond.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME < OF adamaunt < L adamant- (s. of adamas) hard metal (perh. steel), diamond < Gk, equiv. to a- a- 6 + -damant- verbal adj. of damân to tame, conquer; r. OE athamans (< ML) and ME aymont < MF aimant < VL *adimant- < L

Related forms:
ad⋅a⋅man⋅cy  [ad-uh-muhn-see] , ad⋅a⋅mance, noun
ad⋅a⋅mant⋅ly, adverb

Synonyms:
1. inflexible, rigid, uncompromising.

Antonyms:
1. flexible, easygoing, yielding.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To adamancy
ad·a·mant   (ād'ə-mənt, -mānt')   
adj.  Impervious to pleas, appeals, or reason; stubbornly unyielding. See Synonyms at inflexible.
n.  

  1. A stone once believed to be impenetrable in its hardness.

  2. An extremely hard substance.


[From Middle English, a hard precious stone, from Old French adamaunt, from Latin adamās, adamant-, from Greek, unconquerable, hard steel, diamond; see demə- in Indo-European roots.]
ad'a·man·cy n., ad'a·mant·ly adv.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

adamant  (adj.)
1387, "hard, unbreakable," from earlier noun (O.E. aðamans) meaning "a very hard stone," from L. adamantem (nom. adamas), from Gk. adamas (gen. adamantos) "unbreakable," the name of a hypothetical hardest material, perhaps lit. "invincible," from a- "not" + daman "to conquer, to tame" (see tame), or else a word of foreign origin altered to conform to Gk. Applied in antiquity to white sapphire, magnet, steel, emery stone, and especially diamond (see diamond). Fig. sense of "unshakeable" first recorded 1677. Adamantine (adj.) first recorded 1382.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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